


Freedom Tastes Of Reality

by Haberdasher



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anger, Blind Character, Character Study, F/F, Gen, Past Georgie Barker/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Symbolism, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25757476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: Soulmate identifying marks AU; Melanie’s experience with marks, or the lack thereof.
Relationships: Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Comments: 23
Kudos: 65
Collections: TMA Girls Week





	Freedom Tastes Of Reality

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [climbed aboard for rumoured shores](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21610975) by [bibliocratic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliocratic/pseuds/bibliocratic). 



In a world where many people wear their hearts on their sleeves literally as well as figuratively, Melanie had always been mostly bare of such marks.

It worked out well for her, in a way. When people whose bodies were covered in emblems of their love made videos, the subject inevitably turned to who their marks were for and why, and if Melanie wanted to talk about her feelings incessantly like that she’d be a regular vlogger, which was _not_ the path she wanted her life to take, thanks.

(As it was, anyone who commented on Ghost Hunt UK videos speculating about the vine-covered Ionic column on Melanie’s ankle that represented her father, gone but not forgotten, was roundly ignored. She had enough to work on without indulging such nonsense.)

A few outlines of her fellow Ghost Hunt UK members had just begun to appear on her skin before their outing to the Cambridge Military Hospital, but as the group fell apart afterwards, the outlines faded away until they were gone for good.

Then she got shot by ghosts in India, and she started working at the Magnus Institute when she returned, and perhaps some part of her felt like she should have had marks for her coworkers. Not Elias, of course, not the one who trapped her in here, but her fellow archival prisoners. They did grow closer as time went on, after all, as she got a better sense of exactly how weird and dangerous working in the Archives really was.

Her skin remained blank, though. Love wasn’t the emotion that kept her going those days.

After Elias forced upon her the information of what really happened to her father, how his death was one far more terrible than she had believed, she spent a long time in the shower choking back tears and staring at that ankle mark that represented her father. Even now, after all these years, it was as clear as ever, its lines perhaps even darker than before. She still cared about him, cared about what happened to him, cared so much all her anger turned to sorrow, at least for a brief moment.

But he was gone. He was the only one she cared about enough to have a mark of, and he was _gone_.

Melanie stopped crying, but the emotion that rose in her to fill that gap was not love, and it formed no marks upon her skin.

They took the bullet out of her, took out the thing pumping the essence of the Slaughter into Melanie’s very being, but not all the anger left with it. Some new anger arose from the incident, in fact, because being operated on without permission was a very strange and new kind of trauma, and it had been done to her by those she was stuck with, those she was almost beginning to _trust_ -

Whenever she looked Jon or Basira in the eyes, she could feel that moment all over again, remember with vivid clarity how it felt to wake up with her leg numb all over, to wake up to her own blood spilled on the floor around her.

Needless to say, much as both tried to apologize, much as Melanie began to recognize in hindsight that having the bullet inside her wasn’t healthy, neither of them were getting a mark any time soon.

Then Melanie started to go to therapy. She hadn’t cried since Elias had let her know the truth behind her father’s death, but now she could again. And sadness wasn’t the most pleasant emotion, but it was... something. Something besides anger.

She tried to get her bearings, to find a stable foundation for herself again, but it was hard when her life was filled with supernatural chaos, when she never knew when it would be upended next.

And then Jon told her how to quit, and Melanie didn’t hesitate for long, and after that, whatever marks Melanie had on her body were ones she herself couldn’t perceive.

Luckily for Melanie, hers weren’t the only pair of eyes on the scene.

“Georgie?”

“Hmm?”

They were sitting side by side together on the couch in Georgie’s flat. It was a little snug, but Melanie didn’t much mind, not when it meant that Georgie was so close, brushing against her with every little movement she made.

“You’ve got a mark for me, right?”

“Course I do!” Georgie sounded almost offended by the question, though she might have been putting it on for Melanie’s sake. Either way, it brought a weak smile to Melanie’s face. “You’re telling me you never saw it?”

“Well...” Melanie pointed at her eyes, or rather, at what remained of them, which wasn’t much after the awl incident. Never let it be said that Melanie King didn’t do whatever she set her mind to do. After a moment, she had her finger, still pointing, circle the general section of her face where her eyes were, just to underscore the point.

Georgie shoved an elbow into Melanie’s side, which made her let out an involuntary yelp. “ _Before_ that. It was there for a while beforehand, surprised you never got a peek.”

“Bad luck on my part, I suppose, what else is new.” Before the conversation could linger on that point, before Georgie would start to get concerned, Melanie pressed on. “What’s yours for me look like, then? Does it have a ghost on it?”

“No, I’m a little subtler than that, Miss What The Ghost Logo-”

“It does _not_ look like the ghost in the logo, I swear to God-”

“It's close enough! Awfully on the nose there.” Georgie laughed a little, and Melanie could feel the laughter as much as hear it, could feel the vibrations as Georgie’s body shook with amusement. “Suppose it’s for the best, really, otherwise all that boat stuff might’ve gone way over my head--what’s the deal with that, anyway?”

Melanie hesitated for a moment, picking at her cuticles before responding.

“Suppose I see you as... as an anchor. Or a safe harbor. Something like that.”

Georgie wrapped one arm around Melanie’s shoulder. “For a certain definition of safe, of course.”

“Of course. Do no harm, but take no shit.”

Georgie let out another shake of a laugh. “Exactly!”

“So you’ve said your mark for me doesn’t have a ghost. What does it have, then? Or are we playing Twenty Questions about it now?”

“I mean, we can play Twenty Questions if you want...”

Melanie swatted at Georgie’s face.

“Alright, alright! It’s, it’s got a microphone, but on the handle of it there’s a knife blade coming out--sort of like one of those spy weapons where it looks like something ordinary but it’s got a knife hidden inside-”

Melanie nodded. “You recognize my inner secret agent. I approve.”

“Glad to hear it, Agent King.”

This time Melanie was the one to start laughing. It was soft, and it was uncertain, but it was _there_.

She had gone so long without laughing, before.

“There’s a snake wrapped around the microphone knife thing, too, I don’t know the species but it’s a turquoise color? Most of it’s around my right shoulder, right about here-” Georgie grabbed one of Melanie’s hands and plopped it on the shoulder in question. Georgie was always so warm to the touch, warm and soft... ”-but that bit goes onto the forearm some.”

Melanie scrunched up her face. “...come to think of it, I remember seeing a snake head poking out from under your clothes before.”

“Yeah, unless I’m wearing long sleeves it tends to do that.”

“Didn’t know it was for me, though. Why a snake?”

“They’re... pretty. And underappreciated. Good for the environment, for getting rid of pests.”

“And if you piss them off, they can kill you?” Melanie kept her voice light, though she stopped herself from going so far as to laugh again. She didn’t want Georgie to think she was laughing at her mark, at the manifest expression of Georgie’s love for her.

“ _And_ if you piss them off, they can kill you. Though that doesn’t happen as much as some people think!”

“True, true... who else’ve you got marks for?”

“Oh, a couple others. My parents each have one. Still got a bit of Jon’s.”

“Wait, you’ve got a mark for _Jon_?”

“Yeah!” Georgie shifted, retreated a bit, though Melanie kept her arm on Georgie’s shoulder, and the arm on Melanie’s shoulder remained in place in turn. “Faded some since we dated, of course, but I’ve still got the skull on my back.”

“A skull?”

“Yeah, two reasons for that one. First, he played Hamlet in uni-”

“He _would_ , the pompous git.”

Georgie didn’t quite laugh, but Melanie could feel the hot air of her exhalation that was something close to one. “And second, he’s got a big head.”

“Well, you got that one right.” Melanie thought silently for a moment,the smile on her face fading into thoughtful neutrality. “I don’t think I have one for him. Maybe- maybe I should. I mean, he did tell me how to quit and all.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not a prick.”

“I mean, you can have a mark on someone and still be a prick. After all, didn’t you just finish talking about _my_ mark?”

The offense in Georgie’s tone this time was definitely more mockery than real, exaggerated and overdramatic. “ _Melanie_!”

Melanie did her best to mimic Georgie’s tone in turn. “ _Georgie_!”

A brief pause, and then they both burst into laughter, loud and raucous, leaning against each other in a warm and loving embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, consider following me on tumblr at [haberdashing](https://haberdashing.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
